"Whatever questions I needed answered, they answered."

Angela Phillips was in the shower when she noticed a strange smell that got stronger and stronger. She got out to check the hallway and everything seemed fine, until she noticed smoke coming up through the floor. She grabbed some clothes and her one-and-a-half-year-old son and ran down the stairs of the house they shared with another family in Springfield Gardens, Queens. She heard children screaming in the downstairs apartment.

Once they got far enough down the block, Angela turned around to see her home in flames. Angela’s husband and stepdaughter also lived in the house, but neither were home at the time. According to Angela, the fire was directly underneath her stepdaughter’s bedroom, so it was lucky that she hadn’t been there. Two of the downstairs’ neighbor’s children were not so fortunate; sadly, they perished in the blaze.

Angela and her son, Kyler, were rushed to Jamaica Hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. The Red Cross met them there. “They came within the hour,” Angela said, “they started explaining to me how they could help us right then and there. I didn’t know what I was going to do and they came and gave us the emergency money and a place to stay for a few days so I could at least relax and take everything in.”

Angela, a pharmacy technician, was familiar with the Red Cross. Just last year, Chapter responders came to the aid of her father and stepmother, when their Manhattan home was lost to a fire. She appreciates everything the Red Cross is doing to help her and her family move on with their lives. “Everybody was just nice. Whatever questions I needed answered, they answered them for me. They told me about other programs that can help us get back on our feet.”

Angela Phillips, Springfield Gardens, Queens

A Tribute Video to Red Cross Volunteers

"They set a wonderful example for other businesses to follow."

Empire BlueCross BlueShield is a most deserving recipient of the 2010 Corporate Community Partnership Award, which is given to an organization that has helped the American Red Cross in Greater New York to help other others through exemplary action including employee volunteerism and support of Chapter programs and activities.

Empire BlueCross BlueShield has had a multiyear, multilevel partnership with the NY Red Cross that began in 2005 when more than 20 of their employees established a Response Call Team after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. The team spent many hours from September through December in the NY Red Cross National Disaster Call Center, assisting callers who had been affected by the 2005 hurricanes. Katrina also prompted 40 Empire BlueCross BlueShield employees to take disaster training courses in mass care/feeding. Since then, Empire BlueCross BlueShield, and its parent company, WellPoint, has continued to help the Chapter provide support and relief services to New Yorkers affected by emergencies and disasters.

Last year WellPoint selected the NY Red Cross as one of three New York City nonprofit organizations where its employees could choose to volunteer on their annual “Community Service Day.” Empire employees came to NY Red Cross headquarters in Manhattan, where they reorganized the Chapter’s mass-care room (the storage area for food and beverage supplies), cleaned disaster-response vests, conducted an inventory and added new supplies to the Chapter’s health and mental-health disaster kits. Some volunteers also worked on creating and painting a trio of murals depicting the humanitarian services of the Red Cross on a wall outside of the headquarters building. The costs of all supplies and materials were generously donated by the WellPoint Foundation. Additionally, Wellpoint has encouraged Empire employees throughout New York State to support the American Red Cross through their annual workplace giving campaigns, resulting in significant financial assistance.

For its part, Empire BlueCross BlueShield has conducted annual awareness and personal emergency preparedness training as a part of its annual Associates Workplace Giving Campaign for its 2,500 employees throughout the New York City metro area and New York State. Since 2009, staff members at the company’s Brooklyn and Middletown, NY operations centers have taken Red Cross disaster training and established their own Ready When The Time Comes disaster reserve team of 30-plus employees.

Mark Wagar, Empire BlueCross BlueShield President, who joined the NY Red Cross Board of Trustees in 2008, said, “Especially during difficult economic times, it is important for community leaders and businesses to recognize the importance of the organizations that help people when they need it most. I’m proud to serve with the American Red Cross in Greater New York and to support its mission of helping people prepare for and respond to disasters.”

Mr. Wager has been instrumental in obtaining a grant from the WellPoint Foundation to support NY Red Cross disaster health and mental-health services. Empire BlueCross BlueShield also provides philanthropic funding to the Chapter through sponsorship of the annual Red Cross Ball and the Great Things Every Day breakfast.

David Gibbs, New York Red Cross Director, Corporate & Foundation Relations, said, “The support, encouragement and leadership of Empire BlueCross BlueShield/Wellpoint has been ongoing for more than five years. They have been strong advocates of the importance of supporting the Red Cross by encouraging others in the health-care industry to join them in meaningful partnerships with the Chapter. Their continuing relationship with the New York Red Cross encompasses employee volunteerism, community service, philanthropy and disaster preparedness. They set a wonderful example for other businesses to follow.”

Empire BlueCross BlueShield is the recipient of the  2010 Corporate Community Partnership Award

“Richard is the embodiment of exemplary voluntary service.”

Richard Gallis is no stranger when it comes to garnering NY Red Cross awards, having won the Volunteer Support Services Award in 2009 and the First Year Award in 2005. This year he is the winner of the most prestigious award granted to a volunteer by the Greater New York Chapter—the Clara Barton award. This award recognizes a truly exceptional volunteer, one who “has served for a minimum of five years and has made an outstanding contribution to the success of a particular service area or project activity, or who has served in multiple capacities and maintained service excellence.”

As volunteer partner to Assistant Director of Disaster Training Joshua Martenson, Richard has become what Josh calls “the keeper of Disaster Training Records at the American Red Cross in Greater New York.” Chief Response Officer Bob Imbornoni simply labels Richard “Mister Training.”

At least several days each week Richard puts his formidable skills as a data manager and computer programmer, practiced for decades at Chase Manhattan Bank, to work. He efficiently, accurately and in a timely manner enters training records to the profiles of all NY Red Cross volunteers on the Chapter’s “My Red Cross” volunteer Web site. Additionally, he produces and mails the coveted wallet-size completion certificates to trainees. Rose Marie Fajardo, assistant director of response in the NY Red Cross–Rockland office, explains how Richard’s reconciling and updating the training records of Rockland/Putnam volunteers has not only “contributed to morale but actually encouraged many volunteers to continue working with the Red Cross and become leaders in this work.”

But Richard does far more that just data entry and certificate production. Since the Chapter’s implementation of a new Volunteer Management System in 2008, he has used his programming background to troubleshoot glitches and worked with IT to correct them. “It is because of his desire to create a system that actually works for staff that many improvements have been made to it, whether obvious to the end user or not,” says Martenson, who adds, “Richard’s work often goes unnoticed because it takes place in the background, but it is essential.”

Richard also regularly takes shifts in the Call Center before returning to what he calls his “day-to-day” work in Disaster Training. He has also acted as a disaster relief worker and qualified as a Chapter shelter manager, a role he’s played in several NY Red Cross shelter exercises.

Given that his colleagues at the NY Red Cross cite him for his “personable demeanor, knowledge, professionalism and devotion to his work,” for being “always pleasant, kind and gentle” and “the embodiment of exemplary voluntary service,” it is no surprise that Richard Gallis is following his prior award with the Clara Barton award, the Chapter’s most prestigious.

Richard Gallis from Manhattan, NY is the recipient of the 2010 Clara Barton Award

"She touches every segment of the community."

Kathleen Preston is one of two volunteers at the NY Red Cross receiving citations this year as “emerging leaders.” This new award recognizes people who have shown strong leadership qualities early in their tenure at the Chapter and who are viewed as good role models for other volunteers.

Kathleen’s knowledge of and involvement in all things Red Cross began in 2005 when she became a Disaster Action Team member in Rockland County, where she’s lived for 20 years, “after and because of Hurricane Katrina.” Hurricane response turned out to be part of her destiny at the Red Cross. In August 2008 Kathleen received an e-mail from the NY Red Cross that began, “Have you ever wished you could spend more time with the Red Cross?” She did so wish and within weeks joined the AmeriCorps program. As a member of that program, Kathleen signed on to support Red Cross Disaster Planning and Response in Rockland County, serving in all aspects of Disaster Services, including disaster response, planning and preparedness, logistics, client services, staffing, training, recruitment and emergency communications.

A little over a week later she found herself working in the kitchen of the Red Cross mega-shelter in Louisiana “and spending more time with the Red Cross than I ever imagined I would,” said Kathleen. It was her first deployment and her most intense volunteer experience as she worked to help feed 3,000 people who fled Hurricane Gustav in early September 2008. “I’m glad that it was my first deployment; it made my other deployments seem much easier,” she said.

Now, should you ever end up in a Red Cross shelter of any size, Kathleen is the type of volunteer you would want to encounter. She has taken all the available training to become a qualified shelter manager and has deployed to work in shelters set up after local disasters in New York, as well as conducted disaster assessment in North Dakota and Virginia. And she is working to add “Disaster Kitchen Supervisor” to her can-do list.

Another of Kathleen’s strengths lies in nurturing cooperation between Rockland town and county government officials and the Red Cross. As Local Disaster Coordinator for the Town of Clarkstown and a qualified Red Cross Emergency Operations Center Government Liaison Officer, she brings innovation and improved communications between the NY Red Cross and the local municipalities.

Kathleen has taken a leadership role in helping to manage almost every aspect of the Red Cross Volunteer Orientation/Fulfilling Our Mission program at the Rockland area office. “Hers is one of the first faces of the Red Cross new volunteers encounter and the impression she makes as a caring and committed volunteer speaks volumes to new recruits,” says Mary Ellen Douglas, NY Red Cross Assistant Director–Response for Putnam/West Point. “She patiently guides all new volunteers, even those daunted by computers, to navigate the My Red Cross volunteer management system, which makes a big difference in successful staffing, whether day-to-day or for a larger operation.”

Mary Ellen adds, “Kathleen’s presence in the Rockland area office of the NY Red Cross lends a sense of calm and good humor. She touches every segment of the community through outreach, research, communication, sharing ideas, teaching and direct service, building the Chapter’s capacity every day by her participation in so many areas.”

Kathleen Preston from Nyack, NY is the co-recipient of the 2010 Emerging Leader Award

Demi Lovato delivers letters written by local kids to Chile

"Her kindness and compassion are an example for all of us."

This year two volunteers at the NY Red Cross are receiving citations as "emerging leaders," a new award that recognizes people who have shown strong leadership qualities early in their tenure at the Chapter and who are viewed as exemplary role models for other volunteers.

For Mary O'Shaughnessy, one of the winners, that description fits like a glove. Born, bred and still living in Manhattan, she joined the Red Cross in 2007 and trained to work as a disaster responder. As she gained experience, Mary quickly rose in the responder ranks, taking a leadership role in training and mentoring many disaster response volunteers. She also heads her own Disaster Action Team, or DAT, which is on call to respond from Chapter headquarters every other Saturday.

Volunteer Rebecca Callahan, who has worked with Mary for almost four years, explains the leadership qualities she sees in Mary: "She is able to stay impartial and attempts to bring out the best in volunteers while making sure they have the tools and the skills necessary to meet the needs of clients in a range of disaster situations." Rebecca says that Mary is terrific at maintaining the morale of her disaster responders, attending to their training needs and giving them positive reinforcement, "even after the most challenging situations."

It isn't just her organizational and training skills that make Mary such a valuable volunteer. "Her spirit is infectious," says disaster-response volunteer Jack Gwaltney. "Her kindness and compassion are an example for all of us when dealing with clients."

By day, Mary is a manager of legal services for a nonprofit law firm that aids low-income women in need of legal representation in marital and family cases. She does database management and statistical reporting, as well as soliciting non-attorney volunteer help. Mary regrets that due to her job requirements she's been unable to deploy on two-week-long national disaster relief responses. To compensate, she does more at Chapter headquarters: serving as a Call Center agent when possible and training as a public affairs representative, a government liaison and a "Ready New York" preparedness program presenter.

"I really like responding to fellow New Yorkers on the regular basis that I do," says Mary. "I have made great friends, witnessed great kindness and strength in adversity, and grown tremendously through my Red Cross volunteering."

Mary O'Shaughnessy from Manhattan, NY is the co-recipient of the 2010 Emerging Leader Award